Lot's of opt-outs, options declined, etc. Let's go!
For the Nats the main thing that happened was they declined their Joey Gallo option. That was the only option on the table for 2025 and his performances was bad in the off-year Gallo way, which is to say OMG TERRIBLE HIDE YOUR EYES so this is no surprise. We wish Joey well on whatever team picks him up for peanuts and hops that they can squeeze one last good year out of him
The Nats really don't have to do any funny business now. They have enough 40 man spots open to eat up the IL players that need to be back on. They of course, won't all be on the 40 man at the start of the season but for now they go back on and they'll drip back to the minors as the off-season progresses. Mason Thompson, Cade Cavalli, and Nasim Nunez are easy return to the minors choices as you have to think they start the season there.
It's all looking forward, except for maybe Rule V. They have to protect Hassell this year which you would expect them to do.
In general the Nats have not been early movers and things don't get going until after the Winter Meetings (Dallas Dec 8-11) so as interested as we are it'll likely be a waiting game until then. But if you are interested some of the bigger pre-Winter Meetings moves the Nats have made in the Rizzo time frame
- pre-2013 : Traded Alex Meyer for Denard Span.
- pre-2019 : Ill-fated Trevor Rosenthal signing, not ill-fated Kurt Suzuki signing, Trading for Yan Gomes, Signing Patrick Corbin
- pre-2023 : picked up Jeimer Candelario
Funny that their WS year was the only year filled with early moves.
In other news, Jacob Young did NOT win the Gold Glove he probably deserved (but the winner wasn't a chump)
5 comments:
This was published before we lost ward; strange not to have him protected, at lest for now.
I can't get worked up about awards unless the errors are really egregious. They're designed to be subjective and my take isn't the only reasonable one. Doyle was also very very good. I think Young was a bit better, and that's how I'd have voted, but I'm biased. Either way, it was a great rookie season from Young.
For R5, Lara is a lock too. So that's two spots minimum they need on the sooner side (well, one now that Rizzo tried and failed to sneak Ward through waivers). After that, I think it's a close call on Alvarez, Sinclair, and Schoff, and I think a clear no on Made, Shuman, and Saenz. I'll be interested to see what the team does.
I can't imagine they are going to eat up 5 Rule V spots. What's the most they've ever protected?
Oh, I agree. I'd say the recent DFAs cap it at 4, and it could very easily be just 2 or 3.
It's just hard to know where the line is on decent pitchers in the upper minors. They are certainly fringe prospects in terms of expected career WAR, but at the same time it's pretty costless for any team with a roster spot to give them a tryout.
I am unjustifiably enheartened by Rizzo's 5-for-6 success record in pre-Winter Meeting moves. (Yes, I am counting Corbin as a success because he was great in 2019 and the Nats won the World Series, despite the fact that the wheels fell off after that (and weirdly so--the concern at the time of signing was that he was an injury risk, and instead he ended up being an absolute iron man over the length of the contract, just with one great year, one decent year, one meh year (at least by fWAR, which found his 2024 performance better than his ERA ended up, unlike 2021-2023), two bad years, and one year being the worst pitcher in baseball).
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